Information technology and local history

Online genealogy research

2012-01-19T16:55:00.001+11:00

About.com has recently published a guide - How to find your family history using free web resources - http://websearch.about.com/od/peoplesearch/tp/family-search.htm?nl=1 which may be useful for those researching the history of their family.

Easy ways to learn HTML

2012-01-19T16:52:00.000+11:00

When designing websites it is useful to have some knowledge of HTML - the code used to construct a webpage.

About.com has a section on Web Design and HTML and has recently prepared a guide Cheap and easy ways to learn HTML - http://webdesign.about.com/od/htmlxhtmltutorials/p/learnhtml.htm?nl=1

The Old Bailey Project

2011-07-05T11:25:00.000+10:00

The Proceedings of the Old Bailey - 1674-1913 - summaries of court cases in the City of London and the County of Middlesex were published regularly until 1913. The transcripts were to provide a true, fair and perfect narrative of the court proceedings. The City of London subsidised the publishing of the proceedings from the end of the eighteenth century. As court proceedings were increasing reported in newspapers the need for a sepaprate publication diminished. These valuable resources have been available online since 2003 at http://www.oldbaileyonline.org/.

On 30 June, as part of the Making Public Histories series at the State Library of Victoria, Professor Robert Shoemaker (University of Sheffield) director of the The Old Bailey Proceedings Online Project discussed digital histories as a form of public history. He also looked at what the Project team learned from its users as well as how the media have used the site, in particular the UK BBC series Garrow's Law, now in its second series and the radio program,Voices from the Old Bailey. Shane Carmody (Director of Collections Access State Library of Victoria) discussed how dispersed digital resources are linked in local projects in Victoria.

Placing the Proceedings of the Old Bailey online was only the initial project. Subsequent projects utilising the resources of the proceedings include -

London Lives, 1690-1800: Crime, Poverty and Social Policy in the Metropolis provides fully searchable access to 240,000 manuscripts from eight archives and fifteen datasets, giving access to 3.35 million names.
Connected Histories: Sources for Building British History, 1500-1900 provides access to eleven major electronic sources in British history
Locating London's Past: A Georeferencing Tool for Mapping Historical and Archaeological Evidence, 1660-1800 will allow place name data from the Proceedings to be be mapped onto fully rasterised and georeferenced maps

Crime in the Community: Enhancing User Engagement for Teaching & Research with the Old Bailey Online enabled us to carry out the first comprehensive analysis of site usage. A report was of analysis was published in 2010.

Shane Caromdy spoke about the digitisation projects at the State Library and also the shift from charging for the use of items provided online to making them freely available with users providing acknowledgement to the library.

Google Docs

2011-04-18T20:25:00.000+10:00

Recently I have been having trouble with one of my computers so decided to try using Google Docs which I could access from any computer.

If you go to Google - www.google.com.au - and then click the 'more' tab you will find a link to Documents.

Available resource options include Document, Presentation and Spreadsheets.

I have created a number of documents for projects and then printed or downloaded them into Word documents. Google Docs may not have all the features of the latest version of Word but the basic features are there.

For the last History Victoria Support Group seminar day, instead of using PowerPoint, I used the Presentation Resource to create the slides and then saved it to PowerPoint for use on the day as I did not have online access when giving the talk.

Advantages of using Google Docs include being able to access them anywhere there is a connection to the Internet. Documents can be shared with people designated by the creator of the documents.

Google Docs is one of several online tools available for creating documents etc. Such tools are worth investigating especially when working on a number of computers or working on a joint project.

Museums Australia Conference 2010

2010-10-08T16:12:00.000+11:00

Interesting Times: new roles for collections was the theme of the Museums Australia Conference held in Melbourne from 28 September to 2 October 2010. Generally it was an interesting and sometimes thought provoking experience though by the end of four days I was definitely suffering from information overload. As well as plenary sessions each day along with parallel sessions and workshops more informal discussion sessions were available along with the opportunity to visit a number of collections.

The official opening was held on the Tuesday evening at Melbourne Museum where, after the speeches, we were able to view the Science and Life exhibitions in the ground floor galleries. Interactive features often support the displays and as some of the techniques used in the exhibitions were later discussed at some conference sessions it was useful to have seen and tried them. This was, of course, the first of many networking opportunities at the conference.

The MAPDA Awards reception was held on the Wednesday evening at the State Library of Victoria. The awards are presented for excellence in design of museum materials including reports, invitations, posters, catalogues, web design etc. There was also opportunity to view the current exhibition, 'til you drop, in the Keith Murdoch Gallery - an exhibition on shopping in Melbourne - as well as a very quick look at the exhibitions in the galleries which I must revisit when there is more time.

The closing reception on the Friday evening was at the soon to be reopened Grainger Museum at the University of Melbourne providing an opportunity to view this collection.

The Conference Dinner, which I didn't attend, was held at the National Gallery of Victoria.

I attended two workshops in the Leigh Scott Room in the Baillieu Library outside of which was a display from another University of Melbourne collection on dentistry as practised in earlier times in Australia.

As well as at the conference sessions a number of other opportunities were provided to listen to speakers. Melbourne Conversations held at BMW Edge at Federation Square on the Thursday evening included speakers from the conference including Stephen Heppell, Michelle Hippolite and David McFadden as well as Adrian Franklin discussing the topic, Museums and collections: Are they telling the stories of a diverse society?

There were also two question and answer sessions - xCHANGE - held in the Student Bar, perhaps not the best location for hearing what was going on. These informal sessions, providing further contact with some of the conference speakers, were each chaired by Amanda Smith or Derek Guille from 774.

The opportunities presented by the use of technology in museums to enhance exhibitions as well as for communication were discussed in a number of the sessions that I attended and as time permits I will add posts about some of the papers and issues discussed.

RHSV Information Technology and Historical Societies Survey 2010 (part 9)

2010-08-05T14:46:00.000+10:00

Comments continued
Equipment

Recently purchased a computer – now need to decide what to do next
Our computer is 7 years old – only Word Pad program
Old computer & software – we have had help and guidelines, but not enough people
Only two volunteers use the computer which is old
Old group with no computers – I’ve just joined and am very interested in upgrading the society
Group only uses computer for administration
Need special equipment – large scanner
Our major problems are training, organisation of equipment & fear of the unknown. Unfamiliar equipment is off-putting

Finance

Society has plans to purchase a computer, but no money for one
Not much money, not many volunteers, no interest in computers by many

Other

Backlog of 50 years
More time would be good
Difficult to meet professional standards
Computers used mainly for display and cataloguing
No access to the internet
Handful do large numbers of all the jobs about the place – we are slow oldies and too busy – upheavals and new people change things too much – struggling with images, all in fact

A success story

Our story is probably not unique among the Historical Society Network but a brief history of our computer usage might be appropriate at this time.

With the introduction of the RHSV Local History Database we made an application to the local council for a grant to cover hardware and the DB TextWorks software.

We were successful and purchased 4 second hand computers which were connected on a wireless network and now share a Society purchased photocopier as a network printer. Two of the PCs have local printers attached, two have A4 scanners attached and the Printer/Scanner/Fax is also shared on the wireless network.

Recently we have added another 2 PCs of similar specification and we now have 6 PCs on the network. All the PCs are Pentium 4 and run Windows XP and the Open Office suite of programs.

Over the last few years, using these PCs and software, we have been able to increase the quality and quantity of our publications. These range from a 12pp walk book to the most impressive, a very professional looking, 220pp A5, digitally printed paperback.

[This group now also has 3121 records in the Victorian Local History Database]

RHSV Information Technology and Historical Societies Survey 2010 (part 8)

2010-08-05T14:33:00.003+10:00

Problems

Time – 116
Staff– 99
Finance – 56
Inadequate training – 47
Inadequate equipment – 40
Inadequate guidelines – 22
Other* – 25

*Lack of interest, inadequate space and aging volunteers frequently cited

Comments
Availability of volunteers

Limited number of volunteers
Recruiting people to be involved or commit to projects is sometimes difficult
Hard to find people interested in historical research – even their own properties
Availability of data entry operators – age of membership
Finding volunteers with appropriate skills
Insufficient number of volunteers computer literate
Limited time availability for those with limited skills
We always need more suitably skilled volunteers
Just commenced cataloguing project and currently training new volunteers
Had heritage volunteers – great

Age of volunteers

Age of membership mainly seniors – multiple community commitments
Most of our twelve members are elderly
Membership of 15 members, mostly elderly – secretary does all the computer work – membership numbers declining – four moved recently to aged care
Majority of members past retirement age – most do not have computers or computer skills – those with computer skills, skills limited – many will not even turn on the computer to look at the database despite it being set up for easy access
Members in the 75+ age group – they have a go

Computer literacy

Lack of interest in members learning how to use a computer
People – not enough researchers or computer literate people
Computer literate active members (lack thereof)
Lack of volunteers – due to age find computers a challenge – don’t retain computer skills learnt
Not many confident (computer) users in the older generation
Only the secretary is computer literate plus webmaster

Building

Inadequate space (3)
Inadequate space – our space is storage – desperately need an office space area
Room not big enough for more than three
Facilities inadequate – cold! No plumbing, telephone, internet – but not enough people to warrant it?
Difficulty of heating premises in winter
Space / area needs upgrading & fitting out to be used – currently work is done off-site
Society meets in neighbourhood house where no storage allowed
Access to the building difficult at night

RHSV Information Technology and Historical Societies Survey 2010 (part 7)

2010-08-05T14:08:00.001+10:00

Funding sources for IT projects

Purchase computer hardware from:
Society funds - 93
Council grants – 49
Other grants – 52
Fundraising – 38

Purchase computer software from:
Society funds – 89
Council grants – 31
Other grants – 40
Fundraising – 32

General running costs for computer projects from:
Society funds – 112
Council grants – 15
Other grants – 9
Fundraising – 40

Grants from other organisations included:

FAHCSIA - Dept Families Housing Community Services and Indigenous Affairs
Volunteer Small Equipment Grant
Museums Australia (Victoria)- Building Better Museums
PROV Local History Grants Program
Bendigo Bank
Esso
Local op shop

A number of groups obtained second hand computers from other organisations.
One group purchased a computer using funds donated by local Councillor.

RHSV Information Technology and Historical Societies Survey 2010 (part 6)

2010-08-04T16:14:00.001+10:00

Groups with their own email:
Yes – 76
No – 88

Groups tend to use web email services such as Hotmail / Live (11), gmail (10), Yahoo (3), dcsi (1).

Some use email provided by an Internet Service Provider including Optus (7), Bigpond (6), Australis (3), chariot (2), Vicnet (2) or a webhost portal such as Ausvic (1).

Some use email attached to the domain name of the organisation.

66 groups use the email of a member for society business.

20 groups did not indicate using email.

Members of groups with email
14 groups reported not knowing how many members had email addresses, though one reported that they were now collecting the information.

Data provided as numbers of members using email

Some groups however reported a high percentage of members using email.
Other figures provided were one group each with 60, 65, 70 and 90 members using email, 3 with 100 members and one with 220.

Some groups provided information as number of members – other groups provided information as percentage of membership.

Data provided as percentage of membership

RHSV Information Technology and Historical Societies Survey 2010 (part 5)

2010-08-04T15:24:00.002+10:00

Websites

Groups with their own website
Yes – 92
No – 71

Website hosting:

Vicnet sites – 37
Sites with own domain name (some of these possibly hosted on Vicnet) – 34
Attached to websites of another organisations – 7
Part of website of parent body – 4
My Connected Community sites – 4
Blogs as websites – 3 (Blogger and Wordpress)
Community guide websites (2)
Spaces.live.com – 2
Google sites (1)
50webs (1)

Groups with webpage on another site

Yes – 27
No – 52

21 groups reported having a page on website of another organisation but did not have their own website

Help for website development
Help requested to develop a website: 18
Help requested to maintain a website: 16

54 of the respondents without websites of their own did not request help to establish or create a website.
33 of these respondents indicated that they did not have a presence on any website.

RHSV Information Technology and Historical Societies Survey 2010 (part 4)

2010-08-04T14:39:00.004+10:00

Backing up computers

Frequency of backing up databases (and other computer files)

Backing up recent records:
Each time computer used – 44
Weekly – 27
Monthly –33
Other – 12

Backing up complete database:

Each time computer used – 24
Weekly – 15
Monthly – 49
Other – 26

How many copies of the back-up files are saved?

1 copy – 42
2 copies – 38
3 copies – 10
4 copies – 1

At least 2 (1), up to 4 (1), some, 10 (1)

Are back-up copies stored off site?

107 groups answered Yes
22 groups answered No

Selection of comments about backing up:

quarterly / every few months(4)
every 6 months (2)
regularly
irregularly (3)
never back up computer (2)
occasionally / ad hoc (2)
depends how many entries are entered
various times
not often
intermittent
rather haphazard
back-up plan being implemented (3)
not done yet!

RHSV Information Technology and Historical Societies Survey 2010 (part 3)

2010-08-04T13:53:00.001+10:00

Cataloguing programs used

Inmagic DB/TextWorks – 66
Excel – 37 *
Filemaker Pro – 18
Access – 18
Collections Mosaic – 6
Heritage V – 5
Microsoft Works – 5

Not using computers for cataloguing – 16
Other** – 15

Multiple responses to this question

*
13 groups reported using only Excel for collections management.

Excel was also used by groups using Inmagic DB/TextWorks (10), Access (10), Filemaker Pro (3), Collections Mosaic (2) and Microsoft Works (2)

Specially designed / in-house database – 5
Records directly added to library catalogue / database – 2
Tellico (Linux), Tabularium, eLibrary, Bookmark, Copernic and Tribute were other programs mentioned

Type of items in computer catalogue

Photographs – 125
Books – 106
Documents – 103
Maps – 73
Artifacts – 72
Ephemera – 70
Audio tapes – 53
Videotapes – 49

132 groups answered this question

Catalogue records made available to the public

Staff searching for researchers at the society – 125
Researchers using a read-only database at the society – 47
Researchers using a read-only version of the database at a library or another location – 4
Local history database available on the Internet – 25

RHSV Information Technology and Historical Societies Survey 2010 (part 2)

2010-08-04T13:42:00.000+10:00

Use of computers at societies

Cataloguing – 126
Administration – 109
Indexing projects – 92
Newsletters and other publications – 90
Internet access – 59

35% of responding societies have Internet access at the society

24 metropolitan and state-wide groups (14% of total respondents or 50% of metropolitan and state-wide responding groups)
35 regional groups (21% of total respondents or 30% of regional respondents)

Use of computers - members' computers

Internet access – 128
Administration – 125
Newsletters and other publications – 115
Indexing projects – 53
Cataloguing – 47

Five groups listed scanning images at home as another activity

Typed of items scanned

Photographs – 122
Slides / negatives – 57
Documents – using OCR – 81

Not all groups scanning documents use OCR

RHSV Information Technology and Historical Societies Survey 2010

2010-08-04T13:30:00.001+10:00

This series of blogs will contain information on how organisations affiliated with the Royal Historical Society of Victoria are using information technology in 2010. The final report will include a comparison with the results from a similar survey undertaken in 2003.

In April 2010 a questionnaire on how societies / groups affiliated with the RHSV use technology was sent to all affiliated societies.
In July reminder emails were sent to groups who had not returned the questionnaire.
By 3 August, 165 completed surveys had been returned.

Break down of surveys

Societies were asked whether or not they owned a computer
144 of the responding societies own at least one computer
6 are planning to purchase computers
15 have no plans to purchase a computer

Reasons for not having a computer include:

Use computers of another organisation (7)
Do not have a collection or use collection in local library (4)
Nowhere to store collection – stored at a member’s house
No headquarters for organisation – meet in members’ homes
Office bearers / members use own computers
Members not interested
Insufficient finance

Computer hardware owned by societies

Computers

Desktop – 134
Laptop – 56
Both – 46

Printers

Inkjet – 110
Laser – 62
Both – 37
Printer-scanner – 3
No printer – 9

Scanners
128 respondents said they had a scanner at the society

CD-ROM / DVD burner

110 respondents reported having a CD-ROM burner and or DVD burner

Back-up devices

External hard-drives – 71
CD-ROM / DVD burner – 69
USB drives (memory drives, flash drives) – 64
Floppy disks – 28

A combination of backing up devices often reported being used

VALA 2010 - overview - relevance for local history

2010-03-09T11:28:00.002+11:00

The themes in the sessions that I attended included the increased use of federated searching by larger institutions providing the ability to search multiple databases in one search, investigating how users are using online resources including catalogues and e-books - the possibilities provided by the semantic web and linked data, the use of linkages and trails to locate items, copyright issues relating to digitised collections and the increased use of user generated content on websites.

Attending the sessions was a great way to absorb an overview of what the current developments are in provision and use of online resources plus possibilities of the future.

For the local history and family history community it is necessary to keep up to date with the ever increasing resources provided on the websites of major collecting institutions - National Library of Australia, Australian War Memorial, Parliament of Australia and Powerhouse Museum are just some examples.

For those of us interested in military history, the Australian War Memorial has recently released a number of new resources including the war diaries of C E W Bean, the First World War diaries of the unit commanders in addition to C E W Bean's Official history of Australia in the war of 1914-1918. It is proposed that in the future federated searching will be introduced to make it easier to locate names in the many databases online on the Australian War Memorial website.

The new web developments, especially semantic web and linked data, provide exciting possibilities for family history and local history research.

The sessions that looked at how Internet tools are used demonstrated that because the tools are available does not mean that they will necessarily be used by users of our sites. Therefore provide the tools that people may find useful and not just because you can.

The sessions of the VALA conference demonstrated that these are exciting times for the provision of online information - much of which will enhance the provision of history related resources and aid research.

VALA 2010 - user generated content

2010-02-19T15:51:00.005+11:00

The final plenary session for Wednesday was a panel discussion entitled Top Trends which primarily dealt with user generated content - comments, tags, search terms. Below are notes of some of the discussion.

Increasingly users have the opportunity to add comments to content on the web. It was suggested that comments could be treated as letters to the editor. In some cases the comments can also result in a dialogue among users - users responding to other users' comments - a forum without having a forum. Often useful, previously unknown information can be provided by users, particularly in regard to images, and can enhance the information provided. The user information can provide opportunities for further research by the institution. An example is the images that Powerhouse Museum has placed on Flickr - often useful information has been provided by the users.

Tagging records is available in many databases but generally this has not been taken up by users - not a culture of using tags on library databases. Institutions tend not to moderate the tags except if unacceptable words are added. In some cases users can delete tags of other users.

At the National Library user data is not moderated - user data is another layer from the original data. It is proposed to encourage annotation of catalogue records by users in the future.

OCLC WorldCat, a site that allows users to search for books in libraries throughout the world, is planning to separate LC headings and sub-headings into facets instead of one long term with subdivisions. For example geographic facets treated as a separate entity. Tags can be used to modernise LC terms and synonym lists will be used. These can be blended in tag clouds. It was suggested for some detailed subjects, user tagging may be the only answer to adequately provide search terms.

It was suggested that new classification schemes may be needed for cloud sourcing however another member of the audience said that as Dewey DC was available in 30 languages and could therefor be considered a universal scheme, the stem numbers without geographical and other additions might be used.

Micro tagging will also be useful for helping people locate information.

The use of search terms used in a search can also be tracked and this can be useful for suggesting additional search terms for an item as the public uses its own language.

The discussion moved on to how to get people to use tags and comments. Although the opportunity to apply tags and comments may not generally be used in library catalogues users are doing this in resources such as Library Thing. People who make comments have an interest in the topic.

It is necessary to provide useful tools that are easy for people to use and then make them available where the users are. An example of well used user content is the ability to correct the OCR for Australian Newspapers.

Linkages, trails and themes were also mentioned. Picture Australia and Music Australia currently utilise trails. It is planned that user created themes will become available in Trove.

The Internet currently has content and tools for people to use. It is now necessary to bring together the range of collections. Generally people do not care where the information comes from - they just want the information.

The final summation reflected on the 'power of communities that want to be involved. We have the tools. Go for it.'

VALA 2010 - Wednesday afternoon

2010-02-14T10:37:00.012+11:00

Many of the collections in the National Library and the Australian War Memorial are now accessible to the public via the Internet .

Developing Trove, the policy and technical challenges
Trove, a discovery service for the public, links metadata from a variety of digital collections enabling items to be discovered in one search. Launched by the National Library as Prototype in 2009 and later rebranded as Trove, the site is constantly evolving.

The National Library already had a number of digital online collections including Libraries Australia, Picture Australia, Australian Newspapers, Music Australia, Pandora and the library catalogue. Trove has been designed to provide access to all these and other digital collections in one search. Most of the stand alone services will be phased out.

After conducting a search eight collection views are provided - Books, Journals, magazines, articles..., Pictures and photos, Australian Newspapers (1803-1854), Music, sound and video, Archived websites (1996-), Diaries, letters, archives..., About people and organisations.

A feature of the site is user interaction. This is especially seen in the digitised newspaper section where users can correct the OCR. Users can also merge or split records, where appropriate, in Libraries Australia. Future developments will include RSS feeds, enhanced sorting, API, journal articles, e-resources from partner vendors and texts of guides to collections.

Digital preservation: the problems and issues involved in publishing private records online: lessons learnt from the web publishing of the notebooks and diaries of C.E.W. Bean

The Australian War Memorial began digitising collections ten years ago. Charles Edwin Woodrow Bean was Australia's official war correspondent during the First World War and later wrote the official history of Australia's involvement in the war based on his diaries and the unit commanders' diaries.

The digitised war diaries of C.E.W. Bean were made available online on the Australian War Memorial website on Remembrance Day 2009. The digitisation of the notebooks and diaries commenced in 2003 and was completed in 2004. There were 286 volumes and the information in them has been made available to the public as pdfs.

Copyright of the material was a major issue as it was confusing. The Commonwealth had copyright of the material created by Bean when employed as an historian by the Commonwealth Government. The diaries however were private papers gifted to the Australian War Memorial in 1942 with the understanding that they could be made available to the public after Bean's death. Bean later changed this condition to 30 years after his death (he died in 1968). The collection was reopened 1981 and Bean's family gave permission for publication. The correspondence and ephemera among the papers created additional copyright issues. Section 200AB of the Copyright Act was used to allow publication of these items. The website provides a detailed copyright statement regarding the publication of the records.

The Australian War Memorial has also published online the Official history of Australia in the War of 1914-1918.

Also available online are the digitised copies of the First World War diaries of the unit commanders. A demonstration of this part of the site was provided during the afternoon tea break. The original index to the diaries will also be made available.

A database relating to indigenous servicemen will shortly be online. The Australian War Memorial site has a growing number of image and biographical databases and federated searching will soon be introduced for searching the material.

Later in the afternoon Stephanie Orlic from The Louvre spoke about a project entered into with a Japanese company to use technology to explore more fully items in a collection including 3D representations of items, enlargement of sections and commentary in a variety of languages. Cycle 1 of The Louvre - DNP Museum Lab ran from 2006 to 2009. Cycle 2 will commence in April.

VALA 2010 - Tuesday afternoon (b)

2010-02-13T16:37:00.009+11:00

The afternoon sessions continued with information about another site using federated search followed by an introduction to the use of the semantec web and linked data.

All aboard ParlInfo:the journey towards integrated access to bibliographic and full text information from the Parliament of Australia
ParlInfo has been developed to provide federal government information to members of parliament, those working in government and also the general public. It was designed to incorporate changes in user expectations and utilise new developments in information technology including social networking. The site uses federated searching and plus Google-like functionality. Search options include Basic Search, Advanced Search and Guided (canned) Search. In The user can also browse collections and then narrow the search using provided options. Collections include Bills, Hansard, Notice papers, House of Representatives votes and procedures, Senate journals, Biographies of current members, Library catalogue and Parliament of Australia website. The site recognises internal and external users and external users need to log on especially if they want to use web 2.0 features including RSS and alerts. The site is still a work in progress. Future developments will be the digitisation of all Hansards and old Bills. The Parliament of Australia website is also being updated.

Next up? the linked content economy
The highlight of the afternoon was the plenary session presented by Thomas Tague from Thomson Reuters, USA. The session provided a preview of the next development in the use of human knowledge systems. Tom Tague described the first stage of the web as collecting and putting online content with the second stage the emphasis on social networking. This has resulted in a mixture of information often making it harder to discover what we are looking for. Semantec metatagging will assist users locate the information required from the mass of information available online.

Wikipedia has an article describing the Semantec Web and another on Linked Data, two of the concepts described in the talk.

Thomson Reuters purchased software for generating semantec metadata and in January 2008 made it available as open source software, OpenCalais. The Calais Viewer is avalilable for potential users of the software to see how it works. A document is submitted and the software automatically generates tags relating to events, people, facts and linking the information in the document to information on other sites on the web.

The use of Open Calais for preparing and presenting auto-generated tags is provided in this example of a search for telescopes on the Powerhouse Museum website. Other projects using Calais include Media Cloud and DocumentCloud. The metadata generated via Calais is kept by Thomson Reuters for further projects.

The use of auto-generated tags and linked data greatly expands online research opportunities and historical and genealogical research were two fields mentioned where this could be used. Discussion also centred around using Open Calais with WorldCat. The talk provided an introduction to the possibilities of future development of the web - Web 3.0.

VALA 2010 - Tuesday afternoon (a)

2010-02-12T16:02:00.012+11:00

The VALA 2010 conference with the theme, Connections, Content, Conversations, produced an assortment of papers about IT related developments in libraries and information organisations and advancements in electronic resources. The sessions provided an overview of some of the uses of information technology and resources currently in use plus possibilities for the future. Although this was predominantly a conference for librarians the speakers, especially the keynote speakers, were from a range of organisations and it was stressed at a number of the sessions that information technology crossed institutional boundaries. A summary of sessions I attended on the Tuesday and Wednesday afternoon of the conference is provided in this and subsquent posts. The first to posts investigated the use of e-books and a catalogue using federated searching in academic libraries but the results are also of interest to a wider audience.

Ebook usage at Curtin University Library: patterns, projections and strategy
E-books have been around for a while now and an analysis of the use of e-books at Curtin University provided information on the uptake of online material in an academic environment. Curtin University started purchasing e-books in 2003. Although the e-book collection has expanded, particularly since 2007, the electronic book format is secondary to the print version. E-journals, however, have become a dominant format for providing access to periodical literature.

Two major e-book collections described were electronic copies of textbooks and other items in the reserve collection where there would be high usage and a collection of research material in e-book format for ongoing use. Graphs from statistics of usage of the collections were provided along with a description of selecting e-book materials. Generally titles selected directly by the library staff experienced higher usage than items collected in a subject specific or other form of group purchase. The graphs showed that usage of the student e-books varied from one semester to another though overall usage did increase significantly in 2009. The numbers of students in classes and lecturers recommending the e-book titles were suggested factors affecting these figures. [Another possible factor for the variance in usage patterns could be that different subjects are offered in each semester]. It was concluded that more analysis is required.

Beyond the grave: where to with Gen (wh)Y?
The glossary on the University of Western Sydney Library website describes their Library Search Box as enabling 'a simultaneous search of a selection of Library databases, a number of web resources and the Library catalogue with additional refining and discovery features.' The talk demonstrated and discussed the new catalogue utilising federated searching. Users have been encouraged to provide feedback and this has provided information on the acceptance and usage of the new features. Requests were made to also retain the 'classic' catalogue so a link to that version will be available until Easter.

Using the Library Search Box provides not just a list of possible items relating to the search term but also a tag cloud which students appear to like and the ability to refine the search using options relating to library format, subject, date and geographic region. The ability for users to tag items is also provided but not widely used so far. Images of book jackets are provided for most entries and icons show type of material. Linked tags in the record help in searching and tables of contents provide additional information about the book contents. There is also the ability to export the details of the record to EndNote or RefWorks. The search box for the catalogue is prominent on the library home page but as 80% of students do not use the library home page a library search box is located on all pages of the website. Although the new catalogue has additional features and access to a wider range of resources in one search, statistics show probably only a 5% increase in usage over the 'classic' catalogue. Usage statistics have also shown that some students tried using the library search box for searching for other library information such as hours of opening.

Protect your digital files - looking after computer equipment

2009-11-22T09:32:00.003+11:00

Strategies need to be in place in societies to protect their computer equipment. Some points to consider:

Implement a policy ensuring that all computer equipment is turned off when not in use, particularly at the end of the day.

Ensure that there are procedures for turning off equipment correctly.

After shutting down equipment, turn off the power point.

It is adisable to unplug computers and other electrical equipment when not in use.

Cover computers and scanners to protect them from dust.

Never have liquids near computers.

Ensure that computer and other cords are kept out of the way of people
* OH&S - people can trip over cords
* a dislodged cord can result in computer or other equipment turning off

Keep up to date with all government regulations

Ensure that equipment is safe
* Check that power cords are not frayed
* Check that power cords are not tangled
* Check that not too many appliances are plugged into a powerboard (might overload system)
* Do not 'piggy-back' double adaptors
* Check that indicators for maximum loads for power boards are visible
* Electrical appliances should be checked for safety each year
* There are firms that test and tag electrical equipment
* Local Councils may be able to provide advice on checking electrical appliances

Power surge devices are available to protect equipment and the power supply

Some power boards include surge protection

Universal power supply devices are available if computers need to be left on for periods of time. The time that they operate during a power cut is limited but for short disruptions to supply they can be useful.

As with telephones, turn off computers during electical storms

Ensure that the building is safe
* Security sytem installed
* Security sytem turned on when building is unoccupied
* Have an arrangement with neighbours to keep an eye on the property and provide them with names of members to contact if anything suspicious occurs
* Ensure that correct and up to date fire extinguishers are available for use
* Ensure that members know how to use equipment
* Contact local fire department for an assessment and information about fire prevention procedures
* A local fire brigade member may be prepared to speak to society members about fire prevention and safety
* Ensure gutters and roofs are kept clear of leaves and other debris to avoid water intrusion and/or threat of fire from embers if in a bushfire prone area

Protect your digital files - back up your computer (2)

2009-11-21T20:08:00.007+11:00

To back up computer files, the files on the computer need to be selected and then copied or sent or dragged to a back-up device.

It is therefore necessary to organise your computer so that the files are in logical folders. You can then easily choose the items that require backing up.

If regularly backing up all the files on the computer it may be easier if all folders are kept in an over-riding folder labelled Data. The Data file would then be copied to the back-up device and stored in a folder noting the date the back-up occurred - for instance Jan 2009, Feb 2009.

Your back up plan may be to back up all files once a year and to have regular back-ups of files that are altered or added to such as databases, scanned images etc. If the database files are kept in a folder labelled Databases and the images are in folders stored in a folder labelled Scanned Images it is easy to select just these folders.

Programs such as some databases (DB/TextWorks), some audio files (Audacity files) etc may consist of a number of files making up the whole. Make sure that you are aware of the components so that if you are copying these files you copy all of the required parts.

Nine files ending in .acf, .btx, .dbo, .dbr, .dbs, .ixl, .occ, .sdo and .tba are needed to form a DB/TextWorks database - for example museum.acf, museum.btx etc. You would need to select all of these files to back up the database.

Backed up files can be stored on another computer but, in some cases, they may only work on that computer if the program that created the files is also installed on the computer.

Programs, such as databases, may also have options to export all or some of the database records or to dump the contents of the database into a file. If there is limited storage on the back-up device this can be a quick way of backing up records. It would also be advisable to have a back-up of the data structure, forms, search screens and record skeletons so that, if necessary, a database can be reconstructed.

Back-ups should be kept on more than one device with at least one device kept off site.

Keep several copies of back-ups before deleting or over riding earlier copies. Number the back-ups by date or numerically - 1, 2, 3, 4 - etc. but make sure it is clear which is the latest version, After a time earlier folders can be replaced by a current one.

At the History Victoria Support Group Seminar Day on Saturday 21 November options were discussed for storing data or computer back-ups off site.

Another organisation, such as a local library or neighbouring society, using the same database program may be prepared to keep a copy of your societies, database files on their computer with their database files.
Another organisation may be prepared to store your off site back-up copies. It was suggested that, if the contents of the computer were backed up once a year onto a device such as a pocket drive, the device could be stored at the premises of another organisation for twelve months and replaced each year with the latest back-up. Formal agreement with signed forms outlining the conditions would need to be made. Eastern Regional Libraries is prepared to trial such a project. Other libraries may also agree to such an arrangement. Back-ups, especially of regularly used files, new image scans etc, would still need to be made and kept safely between each annual back-up.
Word documents can be stored on Google docs or other online word processor. Google docs is also an option to consider if a number of people are working on a project. Versions of documents can be put online and viewed and edited only by those granted permission to access the documents.
Files, provided that they are not too large, can be stored as attachments to emails using online email accounts such as Hotmail, Gmail etc. If an email account was set up specifically for this purpose exported database files can regularly be uploaded. Be aware of the size restrictions for attachments. If a file is too large work out how to export the file in sections. Remember that online email accounts may require someone accessing the account regularly to keep the account alive.
Include part of your database records in an database. Victorian Local History Database is a database of information items in collections of RHSV affiliated societies not involved in other regional database projects.
Include low resolution images in an image sharing project such as Picture Victoria / Picture Australia.
Flickr is another option for the online sharing / storage of images.
LibraryThing provides an option for cataloguing book collections.

Protect your digital files - back up your computer (1)

2009-11-21T19:31:00.006+11:00

A frequently asked question when visiting societies is how to back up computer files.

Much time is spent on computer projects - scanning images, creating databases, preparing publications and displays plus general office files relating to the operation of the society. Backing up these files regularly is important. Computers do not last forever and and there are many ways that data can be lost.

Back up copies should be kept of programs, database files, scanned images, audio and video files, word documents, spreadsheets, electronic copies of newsletters and other publications etc.

Societies should prepare a back up plan at the time they purchase a computer.

Technically backing up is easy to do. The number of devices available to do this has increased and prices are decreasing.

External hard drives hold huge amounts of data and are inexpensive to purchase. A recent check of the Officeworks website showed 1 TB external hard drives available for $149. Other sizes available were 750 GB, 1.5 TB and 2 TB. These devices connect to the computer via a USB port.

Pocket hard drives were also available - 320 GB, 400 GB, 500 GB - at prices between $99 and $129.

USB drives come in a variety of sizes - 1 GB, 2 GB, 4 GB, 8 GB, 16 GB. The smaller storage sizes vary in price from $10 to $25.

Most computers now have the ability to burn cd-roms and/or dvds which can be another convenient way of storing back-ups on a read only disk or on a rewritable disk.

Other devices that might be used in societies are zip drives, back-up tapes and in some cases, on older computers, floppy disks.

A word of caution: purchase the type of device that will fulfill your back up requirements. Just because a device holds huge quantities of data does not mean that it is the best purchase option. The stability and reliability of some of the larger devices has been questioned.

All of these devices, like computers, can fail. It is therefore essential to

use more than one device for backing up
keep at least one back-up copy off site

New operating systems and Windows XP

2009-11-01T13:19:00.005+11:00

Most of us have been successfully running programs on Windows XP as the operating systems for many years. Many of us plan to continue to do so. However some people need to or want to upgrade their computers and operating systems.

Three years ago Vista arrived and those who purchased new computers or upgraded discovered that many of their programs no longer worked. In some cases when new versions of programs were installed on Vista the basic program worked but some features disappeared. The Help in DB/TextWorks is one example as Microsoft has decided to no longer support the code on which this feature is based.

If problems occur using Vista to run older programs it may be possible to do so by utilising the XP Compatibility feature in Vista after downloading Microsoft Virtual PC.

The following articles outline the procedure.
Running Windows XP inside of Windows Vista - http://www.pcmech.com/article/running-windows-xp-inside-of-windows-vista/

Running Programs with XP Compatability in Vista - http://www.pcmech.com/article/running-programs-with-xp-compatibility-in-vista/

Windows XP Compatibility Mode in Windows Vista - http://help.unc.edu/6037

Now Windows 7 is available.

Some versions of Windows 7 also include XP compatibility.

A search in Google for 'windows 7 xp compatibility' provides many posts including the following:
Revealing XP Mode for Windows 7 - http://community.winsupersite.com/blogs/paul/archive/2009/04/24/secret-no-more-revealing-virtual-windows-xp-for-windows-7.aspx

10 reasons why Microsoft's XP Mode is a Big Deal - http://blogs.techrepublic.com.com/10things/?p=926

An important point to note is that additional memory is required to sussessfully run XP Mode within Windows 7 - at least 2 GB RAM (one reviewer recommended 4 GB).

Additional advice from the PC Rescue website:
Four Reasons to Wait Before Upgrading to Windows 7 - http://www.pcrescue.com.au/four_reasons_to_wait_before_upgrading_to_windows_7.htm

Zoomify

2009-07-11T12:26:00.004+10:00

Walter Woodbury's Photographic Panorama of Melbourne uses software called Zoomify allowing users to examine more closely part of a map of Melbourne produced by James Kearney in 1855.

David Thompson has provided the following notes about Zoomify.

Zoomify is a free piece of software that allows you to display an image in a browser webpage and then to zoom in on that image and pan and scroll across it.

Zoomify works by dissecting the original image into a number of smaller image files each of a different size and resolution. Then, depending on user manipulation of the zoom, pan and scroll controls on the Zoomify display, these files are put together in different ways as a movie which shows enlarged parts of the image (zoom) or differnt parts of the image (pan and scroll). The movie is viewed using the Flash player available on most computers or available free for download from the Adobe website.

Zoomify Express is the free downloadable version of the Zoomify software and is available on the Zoomify website - http://www.zoomify.com. The home page shows an excellent example of Zoomify operating on an aerial view of Paris. Click on the Zoomify Express link to locate a page giving more details f what the software does and also providing the download link.

The download file is a compressed (.zip) file which when expanded gives you the Zoomify Viewer, the Zoomify Converter, a Template Web Page, a Quick Start instruction document and a folder containig a set of images used to provide an example of how Zoomify works.

To use Zomify you simply drag your image file on to the Zoomify Converter icon. This results in the generation of a folder containig the set of dissected image files based on your original file. You then edit the html code in the Template Web Page to replace the example filename with your image filename. Open the edited Template Web Page file in your browser and your image will appear in the Zoomify Viewer frame ready to be zoomed, panned or scrolled. The html code in the template file can of course be copied into your own webpage html wherever you want to display the Zoomify image.

For further information click on the Support heading on the Zoomify webpage and scroll down to Products to locate links to additional information on Zoomify Express. Scroll down further to TechNotes to find detailed step by step instructions on how to use Zoomify Express. There is also guidance on the requirements for the size and resolution of the image file you want to use with Zoomify, as reasonably large images are needed to give worthwhile zoom effect.

Examples of Zoomify in action are available on the Powerhouse Museum database webpage when you search for objects for which images are available and also on the Museum Victoria Caught and Coloured online exhibition when you follow the links to images of individual objects.

Twitter

2009-05-17T11:13:00.003+10:00

Increasingly we hear references to Twitter, another Web 2.0 tool. Twitter allows members of groups (families, friends, organisations) to keep up to date. Messages sent on Twitter are limited to no more than 140 characters so are therefore short. It is not expected that people will respond to messages received.

The Port Melbourne Historical and Preservation Society is using Twitter to remind members about upcoming meetings and other events. View the link - http://twitter.com/pmhps - to see how it works.

For more information on Twitter go to the Twitter website - http://twitter.com

Online exhibitions - a great way to promote your collection

2009-04-05T15:05:00.005+10:00

A summary of a paper presented at a Museums Australia (Vic) seminar on Online exhibitions - writing for the web on Monday 6 April, 2009 at the City Museum at Old Treasury, Spring Street, Melbourne.

A large number of historical societies in Victoria now have websites. Websites provide the opportunity for historical organisations to promote their organisations and collections. However, many of the websites are static with the content rarly changing though some groups have embraced the web to produce interesting and informative sites. An online exhibition can be an extension to the basic website. The online exhibition can promote a section of the collection, be an extension of a physical exhibition or tell the story of an event, family or organisation.

In 2007 and 2008 four online exhbitions were added to the RHSV website - http://www.historyvictoria.org.au/.

Walter Woodbury's Photographic Panorama of Melbourne
An online exhibition showcasing four photographs from the collection. The exhibition uses other resources from the RHSV collection to help show a view of Melbourne in 1855.

Travellers Tales: Photography , Travel and the Proliferation of the Postcard
In 2002 an exhibition showcasing the range of postcards held in the RHSV collection, particularly those produced in the second part of the nineteenth century and early twentieth century, was developed as part of the exhibition program. When a database of scanned images of postcards was put online, an online version of some of the content of the 2002 exhibition was prepared to provide information about the importance and range of postcards. Slideshows were included to provide examples of categories of postcards.

MacRobertson's Round Australia Expedition 1928
An online exhibition utilising part of a collection to tell a story about an event that occured 80 years ago. This exhibition was prepared as part of a digitisation grant. Procedures used were dwscribed in entries in a blog.

The WCTU & the Woman's Petition
2008 celebrated the centenary of women winning the right to vote in Victorian government elections. In October 2005, as part of the celebrations of 150 years of parliament in Victoria, an online index to the Woman's Petition was launched. Who were the women who collected these signatures? How did they collect so many signatures in such a short time? What motivated the women to undertake this task? Why did women sign the petition? The online exhibition attempts to provide a resource to help answer some of these questions.

These four online exhibitions were created using basic html, and standard, readily available (and often free) programs. This session looks at how community groups, including historical societies, can create effective online exhibitions.

Online exhibitions tell a story. As with the development of a physical exhibition there are a number of tasks to be undertaken including planning, checking available resources, research, story board (including deciding what to include and waht to leave out), designing the pages, putting it all together, and checking the end product.

Walter Woodbury's Photographic Panorama of Melbourne is a small online exhibition showcasing four images portraying an interesting portrayal of Melbourne in 1855. Walter Woodbury made a series of "wet plate" photographs taken from the top of the new Gasworks chimney in the area now known as Docklands. Copies of the images were included in an exhibition held at the RHSV in 2006 in conjunction with a conference on life in Melbourne in 1856, and again in 2007. Extensive research had been undertaken about the images for the physical exhibition but additional information was required to make the online exhibition more than just four images of Melbourne taken in 1855.

Buildings in each image were identified and marked on the exhibition images. Research was undertaken to establish from where the original photographs were taken and permission was obtained to enter a room in a high rise building in the Docklands area to take a photograph replicating the view today.

The RHSV also holds a map of Melbourne prepared by James Kearney in 1855. A section was digitised and the free program, Zoomify, used to allow a magnified image of part of the digitised map. An article from the Argus was located describing the opening of the chimney. Biographical information was researched about Walter Woodbury and James Kearney. Research was also undertaken about each of the buildings identified in the photographs.

Consequently extensive planning, checking of available resources and research was undertaken before decisions were made as to how to present the material online. All this information was then assembed to create an online exhibition which used resources from the RHSV collection to provide a snapshot of the development of Melbourne in 1855.

The order in which the material was to be presented, the design of the web pages, putting it all together as one entity and then checking that it worked the way it had been planned was undertaken before it was put online in the Treasures of the RHSV section of the RHSV website.

Other considerations when writing for the web - especially for local history websites - include

Know your audience
Be aware of the range of computers used by potential viewers - not necessarily latest models
People living in country Victoria may have limited internet access
Not everyone has broadband
Browsers behave differently - need to check the pages in major browsers
People adjust computer settings
Write clearly and concisely
Provide layers of information - provide the opportunity for users to select the information they want to view
Keep focussed on why the online exhibition is being developed - it is easy to become side tracked. Keep in mind the aims of the exhibition
Provide user friendly navigation about the site
Do not asume that everyone knows how links and other web devices work
Although it may be possible to include fancy bells & whistles on the site, only use them if appropriate
Use meta data tags to help browsers locate your site

MacRobertson's Round Australia Expedition 1928 is an online exhibition that took two years to develop. It was created to celebrate the 80th anniversary of a five month trip around Australia by two Karrier trucks, an Oldsmobile and twelve men which left Melbourne in April 1928. The online exhibition provided an opportunity to promote a special collection held at the RHSV as well as to tell an interesting and special story.

General information about the exhibition was provided in the blog - ckeck the online exhibitions tag.

The design of the online exhibition was kept relatively simple using tables. The background colour is the same for all pages but the colour of the border is changed for each section of the trip. Templates were created and used with minor alterations as required. A cascading style sheet was used to control the uniformity of print style and size etc throughout the site. A small version of the MacRobertson map, located in the top left hand corner of each page, served as a link to the home page.

On the home page there are two options for navigating The Expedition pages

a map of the expedition including links to the beginning of each stage (image map)
hypertext links to each stage beneath the map

CAN outreach blog

2009-03-13T11:36:00.002+11:00

The Collections Australia Network (CAN) has released a new blog - CAN outreach blog which aims to provide information and events of interest to those working in the digital and online communities.

Initial posts include archiving digital collections, grants and funding directories for museums and galleries, how to post and subscribe to an email discussion list, disaster preparedness for collections, blogs and subscribing to RSS.

Digitisation for Local History Collections part 2

2009-01-16T18:43:00.005+11:00

Standards and Guidelines for Digitisation

Standards

Internationally accepted standards will be observed for RHSV digitisation projects. Metadata standards are used for digitisation of images. The standards provide an agreed set of fields in a standard format to aid the accessibility of an image and its associated records by any computer on the Internet. Dublin Core is the metadata standard used by major image digitisation projects in Australia. The fifteen Dublin Core metadata elements are:

Title, Creator, Subject, Description, Publisher, Contributor, Date, Type, Format, Identifier, Source, Language, Relation, Coverage, Rights

Not all elements have to be included as fields in the cataloguing record. The names of fields do not have to be identical to the names of the elements as metadata tags in report forms connect the fields to the metadata element.

However catalogue records for images should contain fields relating to the basic metadata elements especially Title, Creator, Subject, Description, Date.

In initial digitisation projects preference may be given to items with detailed / reliable cataloguing information.

Thesauruses

A thesaurus is used for standardisation of terminology for subject headings

Victorian Local History Thesaurus – subject terms used for RHSV cataloguing projects – http://www.historyvictoria.org.au/online.htm (Local History Online)
Australian Pictorial Thesaurus – http://www.picturethesaurus.gov.au/

Authority files

Standard use of names for people, places and organisations used in Subjects field

Project Manual

Detailed manual for the project to be prepared

Establish guidelines
Provide works sheets
Prepare examples

Resolution and size of scanned images

Resolution

72 or 75 dpi sufficient when viewing images on computer and Internet
300 + dpi for printing on paper - at output size

Size of image

Normally – size of the original scanned at 300 dpi (if scanning for preservation)
Normally – size of original scanned at 300 dpi (if scanning for printing on paper) Scanning may be carried out at a higher dpi depending on the quality of print required.
items such as lantern slides, glass negatives and other slides should be scanned at 600 dpi so that the scan is equivalent to that of an item 20 cm x 25 cm scanned at 300 dpi The image resolution can the be reduced for screen use .
Fixed size of image on screen (for Internet, largest dimensions no larger than 520 pixels – probably 300 pixels may suffice).
Ability to enlarge image on screen for computer catalogue (DB/TextWorks) (larger image required)

Issues determining publishing images on the Internet

Size of file should be small to ensure that:

Users can view image as a reference copy but cannot successfully enlarge image
Image files download quickly

Therefore items to be

Scanned at 300 dpi and saved on to CD as Tiff files
Resaved with resolution of 75 dpi and saved as jpeg for use with computer catalogue
Resaved after resizing image for Internet – this can be done in a batch using a Thumbnails program (Batch Thumbs http://www.harmware.net/bthumbs.htm or Easy Thumbnails http://www.fookes.com/ezthumbs/ )

Physical resources

Current equipment (2005)

A4 scanner (purchased 2003)
A4 fill platen scanner (in Images Room – purchased 1995)
Attachment for scanning negatives and slides
Digital camera
Computer
Scanning and image software
CD-ROM writer for initial storage of images
DB/TextWorks for indexing and accessing images

Further equipment required (2005)

A3 scanner with attachments for scanning slides etc
Pigment ink printer A3 size (eg Epsom 2100)
Computer with sufficient capacity for graphics project
Lighting for existing camera stand
Digital camera for taking images of large and / or fragile items
CD-ROM disks
Back-up system
USB pen

Specialised software

Full version of Adobe Photoshop

Furniture

Table
Computer Chairs x 2

Funding

Grant money for

Equipment and software
Furniture
Managing project
Associated operating costs

Staffing

Roles and responsibilities of the project team

(To be decided)

Current staffing

Volunteers will require training
Names of volunteers who may be involved in project

Physical space required in Images Room

Scanner attached to computer
Additional table and computer chairs

Storage of digital images

Master copy of CD-ROM should be held separately
More than one copy of CD-ROM should be made
Copy of CD-ROM (not master) used to view images
One copy of CD-ROM should be stored off-site
Awareness of advances in technology to ensure that images can be accessed on equipment or migrated to new system

Steps for possible digitisation projects

This is a long term project that needs to be divided into a series of short term projects or stages. Below are suggestions for tackling possible projects with steps involved:

Steps related to digitising photographs

Start with Collection Treasures or themes such as Architecture or Personalities in Victorian History

Revise entries in database
Scan image at 300 dpi, save as Tiff files and store image on CD-ROM
Resave image at 72 dpi, save as jpeg file and store image on CD-ROM
Link image to catalogue record
Resize batch of images for use on the Internet
Link image to database entry

Steps related to digitising postcards

Revise entries in database
Scan image at 300 dpi, save as Tiff files and store image on CD-ROM
Resave image at 72 dpi, save as jpeg file and store image on CD-ROM
Link image to catalogue record
Resize batch of images for use on the Internet
Link image to database entry

Steps related to glass slides

Revise entries in database
Scan image at 600 dpi, save as Tiff files and store image on CD-ROM
Resave image at 72 dpi, save as jpeg file and store image on CD-ROM
Link image to catalogue record
Resize batch of images for use on the Internet
Link image to database entry

Other outcomes of Digitisation Project

The above information refers primarily to digitisation of images.

Other outcomes of the digitisation project will include:

Scanning of documents / manuscripts and pages from other book material to save as image files or use OCR software to convert to text files.
Scanning of documents to save pages as image files and store on CD-ROM for indexers to use for indexing projects.
Scanning fragile collections such as the lantern slides and making the slides available as slide shows either on computers in the library or on the Internet.
Expansion of service to affiliated societies by extending cataloguing assistance already provided to societies to include:

Providing guidelines specifically for digitisation projects in historical societies
Digitisation workshops for societies
Promoting standards for digitisation projects

References

Image digitisation of local history collections Victorian Public Libraries

http://www.libraries.vic.gov.au/downloads/Victorias_Virtual_Library_Digital_Collection/manual.htm

Capture your collections: small museums version

http://www.collectionsaustralia.net/sector_info_item/10

National Library of Australia: digitisation policy

http://www.nla.gov.au/policy/digitisation.html

Dublin Core Metadata http://dublincore.org/documents/dces

Digitisation Plan for Local History Collections

2009-01-16T17:51:00.009+11:00

This digitisation plan was produced when planning the digitisation of RHSV collections in 2005.

The information in this digitisation plan was used as part of a Digitisation Workshop held at the Royal Historical Society in 2008.

The information in this digitisation plan is published as a guide for historical societies planning to undertake digitisation projects and writing a digitisation plan for their society.

The first section looks at reasons for digitisation collections.

The second section looks at standards and guidelines for digitisation projects.

Digitisation Plan for RHSV Collections

The Royal Historical Society of Victoria has collected material relating to the history of Victoria since the inception of the Society in 1909, resulting in a rich and diverse collection covering social, economic, political, legal and cultural aspects of Victoria’s history. The collection, consisting primarily of printed material, manuscripts and images, is used by researchers, post-graduate students, authors and commercial enterprises.

Advances in information technology including the Internet provide greater accessibility to information resources by researchers. The Society recognises the opportunity provided by new developments in information technology to improve access to the collection, promote the collection and aid in the preservation of collection items.

Digitisation goals

By digitising collections the Society will:

Improve access to the RHSV Collection by enabling researchers, regardless of location, to access digitised materials
Promote an understanding of the history of Victoria through provision of digitised items
Increase access to and help preserve fragile items in the collection by provision of digital copies
Promote standards and guidelines to affiliated societies undertaking local history digitisation projects
Provide digital copies of items to users in a variety of formats

Reasons for digitising collections

Access – Improve access to collection items by making digital copies available to a wide range of users

Via computer catalogue for researchers at RHSV
Via the Internet – providing access to anyone in the world at a time convenient to them
Make images in fragile items such as glass slides and glass negatives available to researchers through creation of digital images

Preservation/Conservation

Preserve rare and fragile items by providing digital copies
Protect the collection from potential damage due to over-handling of items
Digitising of items forms part of the RHSV’s preservation copying program

Promotion of the RHSV collection

Extent of collection
Treasures of the collection
Encourage use of the collection by a wide range of users

Publication of digital materials of items from the collection

Inclusion of digital images of items in in-house publications
Inclusion of digital images of items / digital materials in online resources:

- Website

- Online exhibitions

Provision of digital images as required for users in a range of formats

Potential users of digitised items

Researchers using the catalogue / databases at the RHSV
Researchers accessing RHSV databases via the Internet
RHSV staff and members requiring digital images for publications, displays etc
Users requiring images for publication and other uses
Viewers of online resources
Users requiring scanned text converted using OCR

Digitised materials will be used as:

Images attached to records in the library catalogue
Images attached to records on a database on the Internet
Images stored on CD-ROM to be accessed if digital copies of images are required
Specific images made available on

- CD-ROM

- Floppy disks

- Email

- Other formats (constantly changing)

Images or documents in websites, online exhibitions and other forms of online publication
Printed on paper (surrogate copies)

Issues to be considered concerning digitisation of collection materials:

Developing copyright / access right and moral rights policy / procedure
Determining potential items or categories of items for digitisation
Prioritising potential items or categories of items for digitisation
Checking copyright status of potential items for digitisation
Ensuring that copyright status of new material is determined when brought into the collection
Ensuring whether or not permission for possible reformatting of the item is granted is noted and signed by donor on the Donor Form
Developing Policy on Preservation Copying of Collection Materials
Revising information in database entries in line with meta data standards for publishing digital images online
Determining specifications for digitising images for RHSV digitisation projects
Determining specifications for publishing digital images on the Internet
Determining conditions under which digital material will be made available to the public for private and corporate use
Formulating charging structure for provision of digital material for purchase by users
Revising agreement on use of RHSV materials purchased by users to include the use of digital material

Potential items and collections of items for digitisation

Items not in copyright
Items for which RHSV holds copyright or has permission from copyright owner to copy

Formats

Photographs
Postcards – Several books of postcards have already been scanned as a pilot digitisation project
Glass slides / glass negatives
Maps
Artworks
Large and / or fragile photographs
Albums of photographs
Manuscripts, scrapbooks, ephemera and other publications

Categories

Collection treasures
Themes

About Podcasting - Online Resources

2008-08-01T16:29:00.002+10:00

The internet contains extensive information on podcasting. A selection of sites is provided:

For a number of years Dr Joanna Cobley presented podcasts as the Museum Dectective – the links to the podcasts were in a blog which also included a number of articles on podcasting including notes for a paper she presented at the Museums Australia conference in Canberra in May 2007. The Museum Detective website has now disappeared from the web but an article entitled Beyond the audio tour on the Te Ara website provides information about podcasting.

Podcast – Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Podcast

About.com – Podcasting – a useful site to subscribe to if interested in this topic http://podcasting.about.com/

How to create your own podcast – a step-by-step tutorial http://radio.about.com/od/podcastin1/a/aa030805a.htm

How to podcast tutorial
http://www.how-to-podcast-tutorial.com/index.htm

Create your own podcast:
http://www.cnet.com.au/software/music/0,239025669,240055727,00.htm
(CNET.com)

Another podcasting site is Only Podcasting – http://www.onlypodcasting.com/

Recording a live presentation for podcasting
http://kay.zombiecoder.com/index.php/archives/recording-a-live-presentation-for-podcasting

Podcasting: the devastating lows, the dizzying highs, the creeeeeeeamy middles
http://www.westciv.com/style_master/house/good_oil/podcasting/index.html
Article on using RSS by Maxine Sherrin

Audacity – One of the programs used for recording and editing audio files is the open source program – http://audacity.sourceforge.net/

Audacity tutorial
http://www.guidesandtutorials.com/audacity-tutorial.html

RSS
Type the phrase – What is RSS – or – RSS definition – into Google and you will locate a range of articles and topics on the subject. A small selection is provided below.

Article in Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RSS_(file_format)

What is RSS? RSS explained
http://www.whatisrss.com/

What is RSS? A basic tutorial
http://rss.softwaregarden.com/aboutrss.html

Podcasting: the devastating lows, the dizzying highs, the creeeeeeeamy middles
http://www.westciv.com/style_master/house/good_oil/podcasting/index.html Article on using RSS by Maxine Sherrin

Compressing audio files

MP3 Tweak
http://mp3tweak.com/

MP3Resizer
http://www.skyshape.com/mp3resizer.html

RSS validation sites
Google search for – RSS validation – or – RSS code editor – may provide links to websites
Feedburner – http://feedburner.org/

Feed For All - http://www.feedforall.com/ - program for creating and editing RSS code [not free]

Feed Validator – http://feedvalidator.org/

Podcasting hosting sites
Search Google for the term – Podcast hosting
How to choose a podcast host - http://labnol.blogspot.com/2006/08/how-to-choose-podcast-host-compare.html

How to Podcast – Podcast hosting – http://www.how-to-podcast-tutorial.com/21-podcast-hosting.htm

Our media – a non profit community site allowing free storage of media files –
http://www.ourmedia.org/

Lybsyn – Liberated Syndication – [monthly charge] http://www.libsyn.com/

Podcasting basics - terminology

2008-07-17T13:51:00.002+10:00

Definitions of some of the terms used when discussing podcasting

Podcast – an audio program or audio file or video file available for download from the Internet via a RSS feed with MP3 audio enclosures.
Making an MP3 file available online without the RSS feed is not podcasting.

RSS – an abbreviation for Really Simple Syndication or Rich Site Summary. It is an XML format for syndicating web content. An RSS feed describes content such as a newsfeed, a blog post or a podcast and allows it to be collected by an aggregator. RSS 2.0 is currently the de facto feed format used for podcasting.

MP3 – an audio file encoded using the MPEG-1 Audio Layer 3 (MP3) format. MP3 is the most common format for audio files on the Internet.

Newsfeed – a collection of news stories made available on the Internet in a standard format – usually RSS 2.0. Newsfeeds can be used to publish information about podcasts. Subscribers to podcast newsfeeds use the information provided to find new shows and download them.

Aggregator – software that collects and displays RSS feeds. Aggregators can also be called newsreaders. Some aggregators retrieve and display podcasts.

ATOM – a web feed format that offers an alternative to RSS.

Blog – a weblog

Enclosure – a technique for linking to multimedia files within a RSS 2.0 newsfeed

Stream – the ability to play an audio file over the Internet without waiting for the file to download

XML – eXtensible Markup Language – the scripting language used for RSS. XML allows the creation of custom vocabularies for describing data.

WAV – a standard for storing uncompressed sound files. The large size of WAV files makes it impractical to use these files on the Internet, especially for podcasts.

LAME – acronym for Lame ain’t an MP3 encoder. LAME is an open source program MP3 encoder used for turning WAV or AUD files into MP3s. LAME is required for saving files recorded or edited in Audacity into MP3s and can be downloaded from the Audacity website.

Web Contact Forms

2008-07-05T17:39:00.006+10:00

Websites hosted by Vicnet can include a web form on their contact page for people to fill in to contact the society. In the section re free web hosting on the Vicnet site there is a section on forms and formmail - Web Design: Forms and formmail.pl.

To use this function copy the code provided on the page into the section of the html page where you want the web form to appear. In the 'which address should the feedback be sent to' section add the email address to be used.

If the society does not have an email account with Vicnet, it is necessary to contact Vicnet either by using their web form or by email requesting that the email address to be used is added to the Vicnet list of accepted email recipients.

Some internet security packages block the usage of forms for sending messages - Vicnet provides information suggesting how to overcome this problem. It may be useful to include a link to this information on your web page to help people encountering such problems.

More notes on email

2008-06-26T10:14:00.003+10:00

About.com contains a section dealing with email - http://email.about.com/ - a useful resource for locating information
A recent post is a list of - 20 most important rules for email

Forums

2008-06-21T18:25:00.003+10:00

An early form of Internet communication was the Bulletin Board where Person A posted a message and Person B would post a response. To keep up to date with messages on the bulletin board it was necessary to regularly log on to the site to read the messages.

Forums provide the opportunity for members of an online group to post and reply to messages but the original message and responses are emailed to all members of the forum group. Forum messages and responses are also usually accessible on a site in the same way as the former bulletin boards or have an archive facility where all the posts on a topic can be viewed together.

A number of organisations provide forums as part of their websites where members exchange views on topics of interest to members. Members subscribe (fill in an online form normally providing name and email address and password) to join a forum. As members they can then read and can post messages.

My Connected Community (mc²) provides a collection of Internet base networking tools for the free use of community groups – a forum being one of the tools. Members of mc² groups automatically receive messages posted in the forum unless they elect not to receive messages.

The forum can be used to ask questions, provide information on a topic of interest to group members, publicise a book, offer items no longer needed for a new home, provide information about grants or awards etc. They provide a great resource for sharing information. Sometimes there will be a great response to a topic in the forum with a number of people from all parts of Victoria sharing their views on a topic. At other times there may be no response. This does not matter as forums function as information resources as well as a discussion opportunity. I often meet people who receive messages from the History Victoria Support Group mc² forum who tell me that they had taken information provided in one of the messages and discussed the topic at a committee meeting.

Using the features provided in My Connected Community is easy. You just need to be able to type in a box and press a button to send the message.

Other resources provided in mc² groups include a links page providing links to useful web sites, an events page where members can publicise the activities of their group, an images section and a section for sharing files of interest to group members. Any member of the mc² group can add material to the mc².

The RHSV website – www.historyvictoria.org.au – provides information on joining mc² plus a list of mc² groups relating to local history. Mc² groups you might consider joining include the History Victoria Support group mc² containing information relevant for members of historical societies, Computers and cataloguing mc² for those particularly interested in computer related projects and the Royal Historical Society of Victoria mc² for information relating to Victoria’s history – this is an excellent site to post information about forthcoming events for your group.

Notes on Email

2008-06-20T22:50:00.006+10:00

From time to time I receive questions about using email or how to set up an email account.

Many historical societies now have email addresses. A major advantage of email is that an email can be sent at any time and the recipient reads and answers the email at their convenience. The original sender reads when they next log on to the computer. This is a great improvement on the telephone system where a message can be left on an answering machine and the recipient leaves a message on another answering machine to acknowledge receiving the original phone call.

Email can also use as a communication tool in real time. On more than one occasion I have replied to an email only to receive a follow up question a few minutes later. This can be a convenient (and inexpensive) way to communicate, especially if distance between the parties is a problem.

There are many different types of email accounts. Some can only be accessed only on the computer home computer.
However a number of html email accounts that can be accessed from any computer are now available including Hotmail (www.hotmail.com), Yahoo Mail (http://au.yahoo.com) or (http://mail.yahoo.com/) and Gmail (http://mail.google.com/). Although you provide details of an individual when you sign up, accounts can be established using the name or initials of the society as the user name, rather than the name of an individual. It is important to keep a copy of the user name and password in a safe place.

With email, remember there is email etiquette. It is always advisable to read through an email before using the Send button to dispatch the email. Because it is so easy to ‘dash off an email’ emails can convey a ‘tone’ which may not have been the intention of the sender. Most email programs have a facility for saving a draft of an email so it is possible to read it through again later and make changes if needed before sending.

Emails are correspondence. Copies of emails relating to the historical society should be included in the correspondence at society meetings.

Emails can also be used to send one email to a number of people as a batch email. Some email programs restrict the number of names in a batch so it may be necessary to read the Help section of the specific program for information on how to do this. This facility can be useful for sending a message to a group members or circulating a newsletter by email or for alerting members that the latest copy of the email is online.

Attachments – documents, images, spreadsheets – can also be sent by email. It is advisable to restrict the size of a file sent by email. Some email programs restrict the size of attachments. Large files take a long time to send and the person receiving the email may not have enough space in their In Box to receive the incoming email with the attachment.

Only send attachments that can be opened by the receiver. Some word processing programs use file extensions that are not recognized or cannot be opened on all computers. Documents ending in .doc are usually OK though some early versions of Microsoft Word cannot open Word documents saved in later versions. Microsoft Office 2007 saves Word documents with an extension that will not open in earlier version of Word unless a special program has been downloaded and installed from the Microsoft website. Files created in Word 2007 can be saved using the .doc extension so if sending email documents as attachments it may be advisable to save the file using the .doc extension. Files saved with .rtf extension should be able to be opened in any word processing program. Pdf documents can also be sent by email. The receiver, however, will need a program such as Adobe Acrobat Reader to read the document.

Two warnings: Never send an attachment that has not been scanned by virus protection software and never open an email, especially if there is an attachment, when you do not know the sender or are suspicious of the content.

Email is a powerful and useful communication tool. Use it wisely.

Putting the audio files online

2008-05-29T20:51:00.006+10:00

Much of the day has been spent finalising the web pages for the podcasts. The general layout of the podcast introduction page and the page containing additional information and opportunities for accessing each item had been prepared some time ago but needed to be finalised and tested and recent audio files added.

The audio files can be played, using the media player on the page, or by clicking the Download Name of Podcast link. Right clicking on the link allows the user to save the file to a computer or portable digital player.

A page providing information about how to listen to and / or download the audio files is provided to help users who have not previously used audio files online.

The other page that had to be created was the xml page containing the RSS feed information. Podcasts can be accessed automatically when someone subscribes using the URL of the xml page and inserting it in RSS reader such as Bloglines or a podcasting program.

Getting the xml correct was a challenge as there are definite rules to follow. When the page is saved and then opened any errors are noted and the text on the page will not be displayed. Particular care has to be made that there is no white space - empty lines - in the code and that characters, such as ampersands, need to be coded - eg. instead of the symol (&), the symbol (&) followed by the combination letters (amp) and a (;) is used (no brackets of course in the actual code).

The coding chosen to be used for the RSS is the coding used by iTunes - details as to what is required can be found on the iTunes Specifications page. For the podcasts to be included in the iTunes store an account needs to be established and then a form completed to submit the podcasts.

After completing the pages I then tested the RSS using Bloglines and the Live Bookmarks feature in the Firefox browser. The RSS feed worked with the four items at present online appearing in the list of both sources. After much trial and error it was a good feeling to see it actually functioning properly.

Now that all the pages are set up any additions should be straight forward.

When the next audio file is added online, the section of coding for individual items will be copied and added to the existing code and then the information altered for the new item.

Web design for all computers

2008-05-17T13:53:00.007+10:00

A major challenge when creating pages for the Internet, whether pages for a website or an online exhibition, is that people viewing the pages are going to be using different computers and different operating systems and different browsers. These variables will all affect how the finished page will appear on a computer screen. A page may look great on the computer where the page is designed but not as impressive on another computer screen.

Always check the pages in at least two browsers. The most commonly used browsers at present, in Australia, are Internet Explorer and Firefox. If the pages work in both of these browsers they should be OK. Sometimes specific coding that works in one browser may not apply in the other browser so alternative coding may be required to produce the desired effect.

Internet Explorer sometimes ignores coding that is not correctly entered - Firefox rarely does this - so if there are problems with a page in Firefox always check the coding carefully (particularly ending tags).

Different versions of browsers can also affect how a page looks on the screen. For example a page viewed in Internet Explorer 7 may appear differently to the same page viewed in Internet Explorer 6.

Different versions of browsers can also affect how a page looks on the screen. For example a page viewed in Windows XP may appear differently to the same page viewed in Windows 98.

The size of the computer screen will affect the way web pages are viewed. Some people have computers, often passed down from family members, with monitors with small screens while it is now possible to purchase computers with 22 inch screens.

Screen resolution also affects the appearance of web pages on a screen. A webpage designed in a screen with a resolution 1280 x 1024 pixels could look very different in a screen with the resolution 800 x 600 pixels.

To some extent it is a case of knowing your audience. Web pages for local history will often be viewed by people with older computers so it is best to design pages that will look reasonable on smaller screens.

About.Computers

2008-05-15T11:07:00.003+10:00

A useful website on a wide range of IT issues is About.com: Computers & Technology - http://www.about.com/compute/ . The site contains links to a selection of articles on a wide range of topics as well as product reviews.

There is also an online newsletter to which you can subscribe to receive regular articles. Online newsletter topics - About computers; Podcasting; Web design; Blogs.

I have been receiving the About computers newsletter for several years now and find it useful for an overview of what is available and an introduction to new developments.

Pop up windows

2008-04-24T18:19:00.008+10:00

A feature used in many websites is the provision of pop up windows. Pop up windows allow additional information to be appear in a separate window on the page.

This feature was experimented with on some of the pages when designing the MacRobertson's Round Australia Expedition online exhibition. Pop up windows can be useful for providing small amounts of additional information in a small window rather than linking to a full sized additional page on the topic however some browsers such as Internet Explorer on XP and versions of Mozilla Firefox can block the use of javascript or warn web page users that there is a pop up window each time the page is loaded. This becomes extemely annoying so it was decided not to use this feature on the site.

Pop up window example - provides an example of the use of a pop up window plus the code used to create it.

Some points to consider if planning to use pop up windows:

Javascript is usually used to create the pop up window and to provide control over the size and design of the window although a basic effect can be created with html

On the page containing the pop up window the script information can be added to the head section between script tags

In the body of the page, additional code is added to the link code to enable the pop up window to appear

Punctuation is important

If pop up windows are to be used on a number of pages an external javascript page can be created and saved for example as popup.js - reference to the javascript page (src="popup.js") is made in the script tag section in the header

Because not all browsers cope with pop up windows, html code is normally included in the javascript to produce a direct html link to the page containing the information if the pop up window is not going to work

It is useful, in the pop up window, to include information about closing the window either as text or by using additional javascript to produce a close button

There are a number of pop up window tutorials available online. Below is a selection:

Popup windows - the basics
(includes explanation of each section of code)

How to make a pop-up window

The perfect pop-up

Popup windows

Tool Tips or Screen Tips

2008-04-22T20:11:00.010+10:00

In many websites when the curser hovers over a link a small box displays a message. This message is called a toop tip or a screen tip.

The image map on the title page of the Round Australia Expedition online exhibition uses tool tips to indicate the location of the links to the eight sections of the expedition description.

The tool tip is created using the title attribute within the image tag.

An example would be title="map showing route of the expedition".
The alt attribute (alternative text) in some browsers will also provide a box displaying a message. This occurs in Internet Explorer but not in Mozilla Firefox. Alternative text is designed to be used to describe an image when the image is not displayed on the web page.

An example of the use of alternative text.

If the aim is to display tool tips on a web page it is recommended that both the title attribute and the alt attribute are used.

The following article - The Title Attribute - provides further information http://webdesign.about.com/od/htmltags/a/aa101005.htm

Image maps

2008-04-21T20:42:00.017+10:00

In the Round Australia Expedition online exhibition a map of Australia showing the expedition route is used as an image map to provide links to the eight stages of the expedition.

An image map allows links from selected sections of an image to be made to different destinations.

Photoshop was used to determine the co-ordinates of the different sections wich were to be included in the html code. There are also specific image mapping programs available to determine co-ordinates.

As there are problems providing code in the blog, as the blog wants to turn the code into an image etc, it will be necessary to go to the actual web page to view the code and locate instructions for use of the code.

Go to the Round Australia Expedition online exhibition and locate the page containing the image map - http://210.15.209.254/RAE/RAEtitle.html

Place the curser on the webpage, avoiding the actual image that forms the image map, and click the right mouse button.

If the browser used is Internet Explorer click View Source to view the code that makes up the html page.

If the browser used is Mozilla Filrefox click View Page Source to view the code that makes up the html page.

Scroll down the page until you find the text - Begin image map - and further down the page the text - End image map.

The code for the image map is located between these two tags.

Information about the use of each section of the code is also provided.

Online exhibitions continued

2008-04-20T20:11:00.004+10:00

Story-boarding this online exhibition was relatively straight forward. The main section is the story of the expedition which is divided into eight stages - Melbourne to Adelaide, Adelaide to Perth, Perth to Broome etc. A number of pages cover each stage and much of the story is told using images from the albums. In the early stages of the trip only a few photographs were taken but further into the trip a number of images were taken of sites of interest. In this case a link to a separate page provides more detailed information about the town or event.

The introduction section provides background information about the expedition and also information about material used for the online exhibition.

The daily reports section provides access to the actual reports made by the expedition party regarding the journey and can be read in stages or searches can be made for specific information using the Advanced Search option of the database in which the pages of the daily reports are stored.

Further sections of the website will include information about MacPherson Robertson and also about his confectionary business using a selection of images from the boxes of glass negatives in the MacPherson Robertson archive.

The further information section will include a bibliography and websites relating to MacPherson Robertson.

The design of the online exhibition was kept relatively simple using tables. The background colour is the same for all pages but the colour of the borders is changed for each section of the expedition. A cascading style sheet is used to control the uniformity of print style and size throughout the site. A small version of the MacRobertson map is located in the top left hand corner of each page and serves as the link back to the home page.

On the home page there are two options for navigating the following pages - a map of the expedition containing links to the beginning of each stage and hyper text links to each stage beneath the map.

The information about the expedition is progressively being added to the web pages and database following the timeline of the original journey 80 years ago. The first stage was added on 12 April, the second stage on 18 April etc. The additional stage links become 'live' as each new stage is added.

For this project choosing the material to use and to leave out was a major consideration. Especially in the initial stages time was spent carrying out additional research for the project especially checking background information about people met during the journey and events described.

When it came to putting the material together a number of options were tried. Initially the story was summarised with images but increasingly the text of the daily reports was used to tell the story using the words of the participants. That is when the decision was made to make the complete text of the journey available in a database and use the images and a summary of the text to tell the story in the main section of the online exhibition.

Checking the content is an ongoing process, especially checking that the hyperlinks link to the correct pages. The pages have been read and reread to try and eliminate typing and other errors. Misspelling the word expedition in the main heading and then cutting and pasting the error for multiple pages was an initial embarasing error. At least it is easier to make minor alterations in an online exhibition than in a traditional exhibition.

A major challenge when designing anything for the web is that those viewing the pages use different browsers and often change the settings on their computers resulting in different sized print on the screen. The pages were checked in Internet Explorer and in Mozilla Firefox browsers and a number of alterations were required before the pages would work as required in both browsers. It is rather disconcerting to view pages that work well on one computer screen not looking as designed on another screen (even using the same browser) because the screen settings have been changed from the default.

Online exhibitions

2008-04-19T19:09:00.007+10:00

Online exhibitions are a useful way of telling a story. They can be an adjunct to an exhibition held in a physical space or can be a separate entity.

Like any exhibition there are a number of tasks to be undertaken:

Planning
Resources available

Research

Story board

Designing the pages

Putting it all together

Checking the end product

MacRobertson's Round Australia Expedition 1928 is an online exhibition recently added to the Royal Historical Society of Victoria website. This project has evolved over the past two years. It has been developed to commemorate the eightieth anniversary of the expedition, consisting of two trucks, an oldsmobile and 12 men, which left Melbourne in April 1928 for a five month journey around Australia.

The RHSV collection includes an archive of photographs, papers and memorabilia relating to the business and other interests of MacPherson Robertson. The collection includes albums of photographs taken during the expedition as well as typed notes and newspaper articles providing information about the five month journey.

Using the information from these resources the story of the expedition, the challenges faced by the expedition party and their view of the often remote parts of Australia visited is portrayed in this online exhibition.

Photographs from the albums were scanned. Normally images for Internet projects are resaved as 72 dpi jpg images but as the original images were small, for this project they were resaved as150 dpi jpg images for Internet use. A thumbnail program - Easy Thumbnails - was used to ensure all the images were no wider or longer than 350 pixels.

The story of the expedition was told from two sources - a carbon copy of daily notes on the progress of the expedition prepared for MacPherson Robertson and newspaper cuttings reporting on the expedition published throughout Australia.

As the typed notes were blury and we only had an old elementary entry OCR program transcriptions were made of the notes and the entries for each day were entered into a database (DB/TextWorks). Report forms were created so that the records could be read chronologically. When there was an image that related to the daily record it was included.

The RHSV is able to publish DB/TextWorks databases online but if there was not that facility it would have been possible to save sections of the records as html files to include in the online exhibition.

Information from the notes and the newspaper articles were used to provide a summary of the expedition and together with the images tell the story of the journey in html pages.

Locating podsafe music

2008-02-28T15:25:00.005+11:00

For the heritage walk project I needed a short piece of music for the introduction and ending of the audio file. this resulted in many hours being spent looking for possibilities. There is lots of music available online but finding appropriate pieces of music that can used legally is a little more difficult and time consuming. A lot of the music available that could be used is directed at an audience that would probably not listen to a heritage walk.

A search on Google for Podsafe Music was the starting point.

Wikipedia contains a useful introductory article about Podsafe music.

An article that discusses the problems in locating podsafe music is by Keith Robertson How to find podsafe music. He provides a list of sites that provide Creative Commons licensed music. Robertson is looking for full tracks to play on regular podcast programs while I just require a few bars to use. One of the sites he listed was CCMixter, - "a community music site featuring remixes licensed under Creative Commons where you can listen to, sample, mash-up, or interact with music in whatever way you want" - CCMixter website. On the Samples page a number of sites are listed including Magnatune samples which contains a section of loops available for remixing. The music is arranged by genre so I looked for something jazz oriented.

Another website that contains music mp3 files available for downloading for no charge is Download.com. The audio files are often sample songs to showcase a performer or group and the full album can then be purchased. Being able to download music free of charge and then reusing it are two different issues. Often from such sites material can be used for non commercial use provided due acknowledgement is given. It is necessary to check the fine print which may not necessarily provide a clear explanation.

Much of the music online made available for podcasts is provided to be played in full to promote the recordings and the artists. What I require is a loop.

Back to Google (searched for - podcasts introduction music loops) where I found a number of possible websites including Flash Kit which includes a section containing loops that can be used in multimedia projects. The loops are predominantly labelled as shareware (there may be a charge) or freeware. The information on the use of freeware loops downloaded from the Flash Kit website states - " If you download a freeware loop, you may use it in your presentations as you see fit. As a courtesy it's nice to thank the creator of the loop, and include a link to them."

In the Search Sound Loops box I typed - Jazz freeeware - and from the list randomly chose a 15 second loop entitled Cool Jazz presented by Jie Ma. Description of the piece - "A smooth jazz type loop. A simple bass line, drums and synth strings. On top of that a beautiful jazz melody played on piano". I downloaded the loop to edit into the audio files for the walk.

It took may hours of trial and error searching to locate something that I could use - discovering what was available, determining what I really needed, investigating the legal aspects and using the correct terms to locate possible items was all part of the learning curve involved with this podcasting project.

Blogs

2008-02-27T21:11:00.011+11:00

Blogs or web logs are a good way to record information as it happens - in many cases they can be described as a web diary. Because blogs are so easy to set up they are increasingly used on the Internet by people recording their views on a variety of subjects, recording information about a holiday etc.

This blog is created using Blogger - http://www.blogger.com/ .

I am using the Information technology and local history blog to record information about a number of different IT projects. It is not a manual but the information on a variety of technology related topics posted at different times will hopefully provide help people undertaking similar projects or provide ideas for projects.

Each post (block of information or message) is given a label which helps readers of the blog locate information on a specific topic. The list of labels can be found in the panel on the left border of the page. Clicking on a label will take you to the posts that been allocated that label.

Increasingly people are using RSS readers to keep track of new postings in a blog. There are many ways of doing this. One RSS reader is Bloglines - http://www.bloglines.com/ . Log on to Bloglines and paste the url for the blog (for this blog the url to paste is http://itlochist.blogspot.com/ ) in the blog or url feed box and then click the subscribe button. The feeds (links to new posts) from selected websites collected by Bloglines can be accessed on any computer with Internet access by logging into Bloglines.

Recent editions of the browser, Firefox, show a small square orange symbol in the right hand corner of the url search box. Clicking this symbol allows you to subscribe to a blog directly using an RSS reader such as Bloglines. Alternatively, if you regularly use the same computer you can add the link to the blog using the Live Bookmark option so it appears in a toolbar on your browser. Latest editions of Internet Explorer also have this feature.

The advantage of using an RSS reader or link to a site such as a blog is that you can be alerted whenever new information is posted in the blog without the need of having to regularly check the blog itself.

At the end of each post in this blog you will find a section where comments can be made about the information in the post. Readers will however need to be logged into Blogger to post a comment.

Creating a slide show using Flickr

2008-02-24T12:13:00.006+11:00

Flickr is a free photo sharing website - http://www.flickr.com/ - where any photographer can post their images.

For the heritage walk project I wanted to include a slide show of some of the sites in the walk so I wandered around the city, trying to avoid traffic and pedestrians, to take photos with a digital camera. It is amazing how many construction sites and signs there are in the city when you want to photograph a building. I am not a photographer but the images should give the viewer, especially those not going on the actual walk, a pictorial view of the walk.

I already had a Flickr account (Click the Create Your Account button, then follow the directions, on the Flickr website to create your own account) so I loaded the images into a new album on the Flickr site.

There are many ways that images on Flickr can be used including creating slide shows of your own images or other images on Flickr. I used the slide show generator on the website Big Huge Labs http://bighugelabs.com/flickr/slideshow.php.
The generator provides you with a string of text to include in your website to generate the slide show.

The result for the slide show for the first part of the heritage walk is -
Link to slide show:
Slide show can be viewed at View slideshow

OR

Button for slide show -

One of these links will be inserted into the Podcast page on the website together with the link to the Podcast file.

Editing the heritage walk podcast

2008-02-24T11:25:00.003+11:00

Editing the audio files for the heritage walk podcast provided additional challenges. This project commenced in September and was the first project where I used Audacity so it was initially a steep learning curve. However, once I determined that the best way to learn was actually to practise on an audio file, make mistakes, experiment with different features of the program etc I realised that editing audio files could really be fun and there is always the Undo option to use if things do not go to plan. Of course the first thing to do is to make a copy of the original file so if a disaster occurs you can always start again.

Basic editing of audio files follows the same principles as editing a word document but instead of selecting a word or a section of text you select a section of the audio file (a series of wavy lines representing sounds) and then cut, copy, paste, duplicate, delete etc. When editing you listen to the sound and watch the lines, stop the program where an edit is required, edit the program and move on. Sections of the file can be removed completely or moved to another location in the file or into a separate file. Where there is an unwanted pause between sections of the recording - usually indicated by a straight line, part or all of the pause can be removed.

For this project I wanted to add a sound to indicate the end of a section of the walk so that a person using the podcast on a walk could pause the digital player until they arrived at the next place described in the recording. We located the sound of a chime which I then duplicated with a pause between each chime and copied and pasted the chime section wherever it was required.

I also wanted some music to use as part of the introduction to the heritage walk podcast so I investigated a number of sites on the Internet where music is freely available, chose a few bars of one piece and then manipulated it in Audacity to fade in and out to use at the beginning and end of the podcast. Ideally I would like to record a few bars of an original piece to use but that may come later.

When editing the project I decided that the initial walk as planned was too long and fell into two distinct areas so divided the project into two walks. The first part just needs an introduction recorded and added and then it will be ready to go on line. The second section still requires editing.

This project has taken much longer than first anticipated but it has been a good learning experience, particularly in transferring a project from one form of media to another. For instance when the chimes were inserted to indicate a break, clear directions to reach the next site needed to be given before the chimes. As there could be considerable distance between sites, the address of the site was repeated at the beginning of the new segment. The project is still being fine tuned but will be ready to go online when the podcast page is launched on the RHSV website, later this year.

Preparing a heritage walk as a podcast

2008-02-24T11:17:00.003+11:00

Placing the RHSV lectures online was one project. Podcasts are increasingly used to provide information about exhibitions and also for creating self-guided walks.

During 2007 volunteers at the RHSV prepared an exhibition, History begins at home, which is still currently on display at the RHSV building, 239 A'Beckett Street, Melbourne. The exhibition looked at the buildings and sites surrounding the former Army Medical Drill Hall, part of which now houses the RHSV.

John was asked to prepare a heritage walk for the area and it was decided that one form that the walk could take would be to create a podcast of the walk. Putting the audio files online would allow people to download the audio files to their computer and either listen to the files at home or add them to a portable digital player such as an ipod and listen to the description of the sites while going on the walk.

All projects require a great deal of time in planning and research. John collected information about possible buildings and sites of interest to include in the walk and then prepared a draft map for the walk. He then tested the walk and spent time revising both the walk information and the route the walk was to take before the first recording was made.

This was our first experiment with such a project so we had a number of false starts as we learned to use equipment, work out the best and quietest part of the building to make the recording, establish that one of the chairs squeaked if the person sitting on it moved etc. There were also techniques to learn when recording, especially the speed at which to speak, and the ability to sound confident when recording the text.

The recording was made using a JNC digital recorder with a lapel microphone. A later recording of part of the walk was made using a microphone connected directly to the computer using Audacity.

The first recording made, I then tested the walk. Although I knew the content I had not previously undertaken the walk so I undertook the exercise as someone who knew little or nothing about the route. It soon became obvious that we needed to revise the project and include clearer directions on how to get from point A to Point B. The project had originally been designed as a pamphlet and although directions had been included in the version for the recording, in some places they would not have been clear to a person undertaking the walk. In any project - article or book, exhibition, website etc, the author / designer can become too close to the work so it is useful to have the work reviewed by another person providing another perspective to ensure that nothing has been omitted or might be clearer if expressed in a different way.

The text for the walk was revised and rerecorded and retested a number of times with input from a number of people. I was then ready to edit the audio files to use as a podcast.

Editing the audio files

2008-02-23T11:48:00.004+11:00

I was not able to attend the actual talk being recorded but from all accounts there were no problems with the actual recording. The speaker arrived early so it was possible to pre-test that everything was working. Fortunately the microphones that we had left set up at the dress rehearsal on the Friday were at the right height for the speaker and therefore did not need adjusting - so luck was on our side there. We were also very fortunate to have a speaker who was aware that this was an experiment and did not mind being confronted with recording equipment. He was also an experienced speaker.

Both the recordings made provided clear audio files. The recording made using the digital recorder and the lapel microphone, as well as recording the voice of the speaker clearly, also picked up the voices of the people introducing and thanking the speaker reasonably clearly. The voices of people asking questions during question time were also audible even though some of these people were sitting near the back of the room. The recording made via the microphone connected directly to the computer clearly picked up voices speaking directly into it. No attempt was made to record question time using this set up.

At the RHSV I did a quick spot check of both audio files and then transferred the audio files to a USB flash drive to transfer to my computer at home.

The recording of the lecture recorded directly to the computer using the Audacity program had been saved as Audacity Project Files. This creates two sets of files both containing the name under which the project was saved - a data folder containing the audio file broken down into segments and the full .aup file. When transferring the Audacity files from one computer to another, both sets of files need to be transferred. I had transferred only the folder with the segments so I could only work with 12 second segments of the tape. As an experiment I imported a number of these files into Audacity and combined them into one file but was not prepared to do that for a 48 minute recording. Still I proved to myself it could be done and in future I will remember to save both the files when transferring Audacity files. When next at the RHSV I collected the other file and was then able to work with the complete file.

The recording of the lecture recorded on the digital recorder was saved as a MP3 file. When I tried to import this file into Audacity on my lap top at home I was not able to open the file as it was 67MB. I used the program, MP3Tweak - http://mp3tweak.com, to compress the file and was then able to open it in Audacity.

Originally we had not intended to include questions but as they had recorded so clearly I decided to use them as a separate file. Although the voices of the questioners were reasonably clear I was able to enhance the voice of each speaker to make it louder.

I did not edit the actual lecture as the recording was clear and the aim of the exercise was to reproduce a recording of a talk given on a particular night. If there had been large pauses or problems during the talk I could have removed them quite easily. I did however edit the introduction to the talk - only using the sections relating directly to the speaker and the topic.

After going through both recordings of the talk I was able to produce two files. The first contained a short introduction followed by the talk - 48 minutes. The second file contained question time and the vote of thanks to the speaker - 20 minutes.

The recording of the lecture itself used was the audio files made via the microphone directly to the computer but the recording made from the digital recorder via the lapel microphone could also have been used. The latter method provided the audio files for the questions.

Each audio file was exported from Audacity as an MP3 file and then compressed using MP3Tweak. The first file was 11.2MB and the second file 5.2MB.

A number of sites on the Internet provide information about using Audacity. Audacity Tutorial is a good place to start and there is also Audacity Wiki which provides information about the software.

Recording the talk

2008-02-22T13:32:00.006+11:00

February 12 was the date of the first 'live podcast'. As the Tuesday lectures are held on days when I work for another organisation we had a dress rehearsal on the Friday.

The first step was to set up the new microphone on its stand and position it close to the podium. With the amplified microphone there as well it looked a little like the set up for a press conference. The adaptor was connected to the end of the microphone cable and plugged into the microphone port (with a microphone emblem) on the front of a lap top computer positioned on a table at the front of the room.

The audio files were to be recorded on the computer using the program, Audacity, a free audio editing and recording program - http://sourceforge.net/projects/audacity/ - available from SourceForge.

It was time to experiment. We had already checked with the speaker that he would not be using Power Point so we would be able to use the microphone at the podium to record the talk.

Recording in Audacity is not difficult. Open Audacity on the computer. In the Audacity toolbar there are six (6) circle buttons which control recording functions. The third button with the red dot is the Record button. Press the button to start recording. The button next to it with two blue parallel lines is the Pause button used to pause and then restart the recording and the next button with the yellow square is the Stop button used to end the recording. When recording starts a series of lines - peaks and troughs appears on the screen.

Making sure that the microphone was on and everything was connected time was spent experimenting with positioning the microphone so that a clear recording could be made. We were also concerned to avoid any feedback or interference from the micro used for amplification.

Once the recording is made it needs to be saved. As we were later going to do some editing we saved the audio file as an Audacity Project File. The file could have been exported as a WAV file or a MP3 file (another file (LAME MP3 encoder) needs to be downloaded from the SourceForge site to do this - http://audacity.sourceforge.net/help/faq?s=install&item=lame-mp3).

We also experimented with the digital recorder. Once the battery was in the recorder we were asked to select a folder in which the file would be stored. When the lead to the lapel microphone was plugged into the microphone port we needed to confirm that it was to be used. The buttons on the side of player are similar to the buttons on the Audacity program. The Record button was used to start recording (this also functions as the Pause button) and there is a Stop button to end of the recording. We experimented with the lapel microphone in different positions and also had people in different parts of the room to hear if their voices would be picked up by the microphone. The audio file on the digital recorder is saved as a MP3 file.

At the weekend I prepared basic notes on recording using Audacity and emailed them to Ged. Ged copied relevant pages from the manual for the digital recorder in case they were needed. It was then fingers crossed that all would work well on the night.

Podcasting Adventure commences

2008-02-22T11:17:00.012+11:00

The Royal Historical Society of Victoria received a grant to provide access to podcasts of RHSV lectures and other events via the RHSV website.

After initial research to locate information as to how other organisations were doing this and the equipment used it was time to purchase some equipment and experiment. I own a JNC digital recorder and had used it for recording interviews. I had also downloaded the program, Audacity, which I was learning to use to edit audio files so I had a small amount of experience.

For this project I wanted equipment that would provide a range of options for recording in varying circumstances.

The lectures are normally held in the former Officers' Mess - a wood panelled room with large windows looking across William Street to the Flagstaff Gardens. From time to time the noise of passing traffic can be quite loud but fortunately the majority of meetings are held in the evening when there is less traffic. The potential noise of traffic however has to be a consideration.

The meeting room seats up to 80 people so I wanted a system that would capture the voice of the speaker but not necessarily the range of other noises associated with a room full of people.

There is a podium where speakers can rest their notes and are encouraged to speak into the microphone fixed to the podium so that everyone in the room can hear them. The microphone is linked to an amplification system - not sure how old it is but it was installed many years ago.

Speakers however do not necessarily stay in one place so there is also a microphone connected to the amplification system that can be worn around the speaker's neck, if the speaker wants to use a Power Point presentation or other aid, instead of using the fixed microphone.

Any equipment purchased had to be easy to use, especially as different people might be setting it up depending when the equipment was required.

Talks and other functions are sometimes held in other parts of the former Drill Hall downstairs so we wanted a system that could be used elsewhere in the building. We also wanted a system that could be used to record talks etc at other locations, if required.

Fortunately the first speaker for the year, Andrew Lemon, was prepared to be the 'guinea pig' for recording our first 'live' audio files and didn't mind that we were still experimenting with equipment.

It was decided to trial two systems for capturing the audio files.

The first option was to be able to record a speaker from a portable recorder.
A Sony IC recorder was purchased (ICDUX70). We needed a unit that would record mp3 files and would connect directly to the computer via USB. This recorder uses one AAA battery and will use a rechargeable battery which is recharged via the computer. We also wanted a unit where the controls are easy to use. Although the unit has a built in microphone and comes with headphones we purchased a separate lapel microphone to connect to the recorder.

The second option was to record a speaker using a fixed microphone connected directly to a computer.
A trip to Allans Music Store in Bourke Street introduced me to a range of microphones. I explained to the salesman what I wanted to do and he suggested a microphone - a Shure PG48 - that could be connected to a computer provided that I also purchased the appropriate adaptor. I also purchased a stand for the microphone.

A third option was to to record a speaker using the amplified microphone via a cable from the amplifier to the computer.
As the amplifier at the RHSV is an older model we could not locate a suitable output port to do this.

Podcasting

2008-02-17T11:52:00.001+11:00

The Royal Historical Society of Victoria received a grant to enable the society to add podcasts to the RHSV website. The first entries in this blog will record experiences and experiments to achieve this aim.

The ability to include audio files in websites has been a feature of the Internet for many years - the RHSV included such a link in the section on the Victorian Folklore Fund several years ago.

With the increasing popularity of portable digital players, particularly ipods, organisations are increasingly making available audio files of talks and other recorded information. Podcasting has become the term for this and includes adding a rss feed, where audio files are regularly added to a site, to enable users to add the feed to their rss reader and have access to the material added to the site.

The next postings in this blog will follow the path taken to select the equipment used to record a lecture, editing the digital recording using Audacity software and making the audio file available online.